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Damocles February 19th, 2006 04:15 PM

Requiem; A Play
 
This is a sneak peak at a Centurion Draco inspired script project. It will be updated as I find time.

Criticism welcome.

As always! :salute:
----------------------------------------------------------------


Requiem;




By Damocles





Cast;


Of the Pegasus(CVBS77);


Commander(Admiral) of the Pegasus(CVBS)TG 77.2.1 (Nelena or Nelson)Cain


Captain of the Pegasus; Patrick Harriman


CAG of the Pegasus; Tyrol Galen


Commander Viper Squadron [Blue]; Pegasus; Captain Sheba Cain,


Chief of Marines: Pegasus; John (Hacksaw) Johnson,


Ensign Barry ^Cluster^ Crabbe.


Doctor Harvey Gottlieb


Marine/technician 1 Thomas


Marine/technician 2 Bellamy


Marine/technician 3 Croft


Marine/technician 4 Harvey


Of the Phoenix(DDG104)


Captain of the Phoenix(DDG104); Norman Osborne


Technician 2nd Class; Selene Spright


OOD; Shuttle pilot; Lieutenant Charles Gordon


Condemned Suicide Party


Robert Petry; communications expert


Laura Petry; life support technician


Ledon Tombs; computer hacker


Guy Fawkes; explosives expert


Hilton Hedd; survivalist


Cylons;


Gold #1(Leoben)


Centurion 1


Centurion 2


Centurion 3


Centurion 4


Traitor;


Doctor Ravidge


David Hassel


Mindless Clones as needed





Act 1; Scene 1 Setting, the bridge of the Phoenix


[Note to set dresser]


The set should have a series of banked screens and desks set in two parallel rows, one stage left, and one stage right set obliquely so that the audience(camera) appears to look from the back of the compartment looking forward. At stage rear is a large plexiglass plotting screen that a writer can stand behind and be seen writing backwards as data is relayed to him/her from the various technicians at their consoles.


Stage center is a table where the navigation and battle conferencing is conducted by the bridge battlestaff.


[Note to director]


Most of your action takes place around this table. You are free to block the stage direction as you see fit, but just remember that the central table is a plotter/projector navigation table of the ship's tactical situation. The actors look down into it(the audience(camera) does not see what the actor's see as they describe to each other what they see and what they propose to do about it.


Spright; Sir! Artemus reports by TBS, a positive tylium hit.


Gordon; Where? How? We're in the middle of a WIMP desert. There shouldn't be any dark matter within a hundred years of us!


Spright; By your leave, Sir. They are sending compressed data.


Gordon; Need to log this report, Call the captain?


Spright; I would, Sir. More about the hit......It is bearing 275 our baseline vector at 130 azimuth.


Marine/Technician 1 Thomas; That would be Drone Number Three, Sir. I can patch through Artemus' telemetry and get a repeater if you need it.


Gordon; Relay it to the plotter. Let's see if we have a ghost or if this is answer to our prayers.


Marine/technician 1 Thomas; On the plotter, now.


[The writer behind the plexiglass screen plots a vector from the center of the compass in a bold arrow that leads from the center of the compass to the outside lower right quadrant as the compass faces the audience. The plotter writes 275/130 R? along the arrow. This should be fairly accurate but since the audience(camera) is too far away to see the accuracy of the plot it should be just good enough to give the idea that the tylium source is behind starboard and above the Phoenix.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Act 1; Scene 2


Setting; the Cylon Command Post on Murado;


[Note to set dresser]


You can remove the plotter table and substitute a throne chair in the middle of the stage on a rotating dais. Remove the stage right consoles and screens and put in a wall with a doorway. Hang banners there and across the plexiglass plotting screen to hide that from view.]


[Note to director]


You can have as many Cylon extras as you want to dress out the command center but the only speaking actors should be the indicated dialog parts. The rest of the Cylons should busywork themselves fiddling silently with buttons and levers. Ravidge unless indicated otherwise is either seated on the throne, or is near it as if it is a thing he possesses.


Ravidge;[to Cylon 2] Are you sure that you detected a wormhole inflation?


Cylon 2; What did you misunderstand, Human? Did I not tell you this?


Ravidge(going to a display and looking at it.) Damn your eyes!(He may look at a Cylon as its eye sweeps back and forth) I can't tell from this monitor what direction it is. Adjust it!(The Cylon at the display fiddles with some knobs.)


Cylon 2; Human weakness.


Ravidge; Shut up! I need to see this, you tin buffoon. Ah, that's better. To anti-spinward and below us. Just as I predicted to your idiot masters.......(He walks over to Cylon 2 and pats him on the cheek.) What would you Toasters do without me?


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Act 1; Scene 3


Setting; Cain's quarters aboard the Pegasus


[Note to set dresser]


Dress the set as a sitting room(center), office(right), sleeping quarters(left). Provide a table(desk) with at least three chairs.


[Note to director]


Provide hand props to the actors, to substitute for the big plotter table that we see used on the bridge set. These can be anything from clipboards to notebook computers. If you have the resources give Cain's quarter's a small plexiglass plot screen that duplicates the Phoenix's bridge plexiglass screen plot throughout the play.


Cain; Its a trap.


Harriman; How can you say that?


Cain (Looks at her handheld) This is a tachyon desert. No dark matter either. Yet out of nowhere, Artemus gets a tylium read from one of her drones? I know Gottlieb is a miracle worker and he told us that this B class star would be a WIMP source, but.........


Harriman(looks at his watch); Speaking of Gottlieb, he's late, again.


Gottlieb enters; This is incredible... The power! Why with such a projector, I could solve the....


Cain; Doctor Gottlieb?


Gottlieb(Pays attention to the two Colonial officers present.) Oh sorry. I was reading the data from Artemus' Probe Number Three. Astonishing. She sent this before she was corked.


Harriman; The Artemus?


Gottlieb(Looking befuddled); No, Of course not! Probe Number Three. .


Cain smiles. What news did Probe Number Three send us, Doctor, before she was ^corked^ ?


Gottlieb(Going into his ^lecture before the mentally handicapped^ mode) Simple enough, Admiral. The probe jumped into the target system as I planned, and made a run in on the star on a galactic north/south anti-spinward parabola.(Gottlieb shows this with his hands and makes a startrek whooshing sound to illustrate the path the probe took.)


Cain(gently chiding); All good, Doctor, but what did the probe send back?


Gottlieb;(becomes serious) It sent back this.(Hands over his handheld to Cain.)


Cain reads aloud; From Artemus. Fourth planet WIMP concentration detected. Probe Three changed course to flyby. Tylium confirmed present in 3% matrix dilution. Probe destroyed by particle beam fire. Analysis indicates planet fortified by close orbiting gun satellites......Presumed Colonial technology from the particle distribution spall.


Harriman; Why those dirty bastards.


Cain; You're learning, Pat. The Machines aren't stupid. They had to be driving us toward something.


Harriman; Kind of an expensive trap, using and losing three basestars.


Gottlieb; Machine logic, Captain. They herd you into a fuel desert, then they run you combat ragged until you have to refuel. Naturally the Machines have staked out the only tylium source in the whole region. If you assault the tylium supply and the Cylons lose it? They blow that world, and notify their brothers where we are, and we? We are stranded. The Cylon pursuers bring in as many Machines as they need, and they kill all of us. Simple Machine Logic.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Damocles February 19th, 2006 04:17 PM

Requiem; A Play
 
Act 1; Scene 4


Setting; Hillside on the planet Murado.


[Note to set dresser]


Use a backdrop; either a scene of a petroleum refinery, or an open pit mine. The rest of the stage(camera shot) is bare, (except for a Cylon vehicle if you can arrange it)


[Note to the director]


Once again you can use whatever Cylon extras you need to dress out the stage. These are armed with rifles. There are ^clones^(obviously humanoid) which are workers. These march across the stage at irregular intervals carrying tools. The indication should be that these clones are the worker ants to a tylium ore processing factory-hive.


Gold Cylon# 1(Leoben); Report.


Cylon 2; The Colonial drone approached within one tenth of a second before we attained a fire solution. It is certain that we were detected.


Gold Cylon #1(Leoben); Did you send off the contact report?


Cylon 2; Yes.


Gold Cylon #1(Leoben); Are you certain that our own preparations are complete?


Cylon 2: Yes. As instructed, solonite charges are set in the tylium dumps. Query?


Gold Cylon #1(Leoben); Proceed.


Cylon 2; Why do we risk the destruction of so much valuable refined fuel? We have this world heavily defended, thanks to the Human traitor, Ravidge. The Colonials cannot possibly risk a full-fledged assault upon this place. Our guns outrange theirs and they dare not risk destabilizing so much dark matter. The explosion would destroy everything within this star system. It is not logical.


Gold Cylon #1(Leoben); Humans do not deal in logic. They deal in need. We exploit this. The traitor, Ravidge, needed us to build his particle projector; so that he could satisfy his curiousity; concerning why top spin quarks wobble while bottom spin quarks do not. The Colonials of the Pegasus fleet, now, need fuel. So they will ignore the immutable logic of their situation, which is to submit to us and hope for survival. They act instead, in defiance, on their need.


Cylon 2; How long do you intend to allow the traitor, Ravidge, to live?


Gold Cylon #1(Leoben); Until I get Pegasus.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Act 1 Scene 5

Setting; Wardroom aboard the Pegasus


[Note to set dresser]


Use the set that you dressed for Cain's quarters. Change the wall hangings and the furniture. You should have a conference table rigged up like the navigation plotter you used on the Phoenix's bridge set. Likewise there should be the Plexiglass plot in the back of the set(camera shot) to provide a en camera aid to the audience(camera POV) as to what Cain's merry band of pirates scheme to do to the Cylons.]


[Note to the director]


Block this scene, and subsequent scenes, carefully; so that the actors don't foul each other as they move to scribble on the plexiglass. Make sure that the actors write large enough and bold enough, so that the action planned is clear enough to show the audience what is going on in the play as it progresses.


Cain speaks(Sitting at the head of the table) looks down the into tabletop as if the admiral is peering into a well of space.); Its a blue-white A class star. The tylium is on the fourth planet. That planet has the thickest belt of gun satellites I've ever seen. And we need that fuel. I'm open to suggestions, gentlemen?


Crabbe; We've wargamed a standard assault, Sir. It doesn't work. Even if we jump in on top of them, a dozen of those gunsats will skewer us like a Geminese magician doing a sword trick.


Cain; Well, Mister, what do you suggest?


Gottlieb(interrupting) These gunsats may be Colonial particle beam weapon platforms, but the layout is Cylon. Three distinct discrete layers, like an onion. If that is Cylon true, then, I bet my school key, that it is a Cylon control logic governing the defense. They will have a central command..........


Harriman; So what are you suggesting, Doc?


Crabbe; With respect, Sir, he's suggesting that we take the command center, and thereby knock out the satellite system.


Galen(Looking at John ^Hacksaw^ Johnson); A commando raid?


Johnson(Obviously annoyed at the CAG); Its possible. I have to assume that the raid party is expendable, so it will be a volunteer mission.


Johnson goes over to the plexiglass plot screen and he puts up a transparency of the tylium planet that he picks up from the conference table. He marks an X on the transparency.


Johnson; That is where the Artemus probe RDFed the most transmissions from the planet. So that is where I expect the tin heads put their command bunker. Idiots don't disperse. Here is where the tylium dumps are.(He draws this) Guarantee that they are mined. So we have to sneak in and knock out two objectives; the satellite command and the detonation master control.(He draws this on the planet map.) .


Cain; Very well. Mister Johnson, you will handle the planet-side details. Tyrol, I expect you to find a way to get that raid party in. If we can defuse the Cylon mines and turn off the satellites , we can close-orbit the planet with the Artemus and rail-gun the toasters dirtside from altitude. Kinetics. We get the fuel......


Gottlieb; and those lovely particle projectors.......


Cain; My thoughts exactly.....


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


End of Act 1

Dawg February 19th, 2006 07:05 PM

An interesting premise, Damocles, and an interesting beginning. But if I may critique...

The names, ship designations, job titles, etc. are too Earth-like. Cain is Cain - period (and to get a feeling for him, remember he was played by Lloyd Bridges). My suggestion would be to put down the phone book and pick up an ancient history text for name inspiration. Your use of "Leoben" as a Cylon name is particularly unfortunate as well, as it seriously detracts from any BSG feel you intend for this (in fact, it eliminates any classic feel).

Your design for the bridge etc. appears to be taken from a heavily-Star-Trek-influenced show (the glass board with grease-pencil notes, the illuminated center table) and not extrapolated from the Pegasus of Living Legend.

As I said, though, it's a very interesting premise. I can see this coming after LL, after Pegasus has destroyed the two basestars and disappears.

Approach it from that perspective, Damocles, and you've got a possible winner here. Let me know if those edits are forthcoming.

I am
Dawg
:warrior:

Damocles February 19th, 2006 10:45 PM

Reply to Dawg
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Dawg
An interesting premise, Damocles, and an interesting beginning. But if I may critique...

That is what I requested.

Quote:

The names, ship designations, job titles, etc. are too Earth-like.
If your premis is an aircraft carrier in space, then the functions of that crew, their job specializations will conform to naval tradition and practice. It is going to be hard enough for the audience to pick up on such concepts as wormholes, dark matter, a gravitational slingshot spaceprobe reconnaissance, one way low observable planetary infiltration by the raid party in carbon nanotube aeroshells etc., without trying to make up terms for Chief of Marines, Chief Engineer, Ensign, CAG, XO, or admiral. Besides the audience understands ^spaceprobe^, ^drone^, ^destroyer^, and ^surveyor^ along with ^tanker^, and ^shuttle^.

Quote:

Cain is Cain - period (and to get a feeling for him, remember he was played by Lloyd Bridges).
Lloyd, or his clone, might not be available to us. You might have to settle for a Cain that has a flair for tactics, and is not so over the top.(Pierce Brosnan, he works cheap.)

Quote:

My suggestion would be to put down the phone book and pick up an ancient history text for name inspiration.
Guy Fawks?
Robert Petry
Laura Petry
Once agin I can change the names but what is ancient about Starbuck or Boomer or Leda or Thene?

Quote:

Your use of "Leoben" as a Cylon name is particularly unfortunate as well, as it seriously detracts from any BSG feel you intend for this (in fact, it eliminates any classic feel).
Leoben will be gone. Gold Cylon #1 is sufficient.

I can change the names of the characters. Thats easy.

Changing the applicable technology is not. The description of the Phoenix bridge, for example, is based in this;

http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/...vis00/p6-b.gif

It is heavily influenced by real-life. The plexiglass plot sheet is a still used manual backup for air defense and near battlespace management aboard some ships. The layoput of the actual set is dictated by the conventions of either shooting a very cheap episode or staging a stage play.

This is specifically dictated by the criticism of a CGI expert, SPCGlider. The hallmark here is to write the script inexpensively, so that it is no more expensive to film than a medical drama or a cop show.

That is tough to do. But as you can see so far; all the space action that you see has been in your mind's eye. You have seen the destruction of Artemus' Probe Number Three by the massed fire of at least a dozen Cylon particle beam satellites orbiting the planet of a blue-white star, but I haven't shown it to you on film or on stage. I've used workarounds I let you see it as characters talked about it and acted in response to it. In so doing, I set up the premise of the episode. I think doing that by itself in the first act of a script is a remarkable achievement!

I will take another look at Cain, the character, and the names. But if you expect me to call light seconds and AUs photonic centons and metrons? If you expect me to describe Marines as Colonial shiptroopers, when the term Marine is so easily understood as shipboard infantry? If you expect me to change best theoretical technology for a ^feel^ of nostalgia. No.

Quote:

Your design for the bridge etc. appears to be taken from a heavily-Star-Trek-influenced show (the glass board with grease-pencil notes, the illuminated center table) and not extrapolated from the Pegasus of Living Legend.
That is the bridge of a Colonial destroyer, the Phoenix, an AEGIS ship, designed to bodyguard a battlestar with countermeasures and active area and point defense weapon systems against massed Cylon Raider attacks. I won't be using the bridge of the Pegasus, Too expensive.

About that lighted table. It isn't lighted. It would be in shadow, so that you could see into the surface well the map that it would project within its depth. The audience is not meant to see into it.(Write inexpensively, i.e. suggest.)

The automatic course plot position indicator is now a common feature on the bridges of commercial shipping vessels. The plotter/navigation table I include, is just the logical extension of prevailing nautical technology adapted to space navigation. Nothing Startrekish about it at all. It has a ^real^ function and a purpose as a data fusion presentation device.

Quote:

As I said, though, it's a very interesting premise. I can see this coming after LL, after Pegasus has destroyed the two basestars and disappears.

Approach it from that perspective, Damocles, and you've got a possible winner here. Let me know if those edits are forthcoming.

I am
Dawg
:warrior:
I will edit where I can. Cain? We'll see. I remember him, as I remarked, as acted over the top. I can write him that way, but remember we don't have Lloyd in his prime anymore, so you may have to settle for Pierce Brosnan.

Battlestar Galactica was about heroism and optimism in the face of incredible odds. It wasn't the furniture of the show that made Battlestar Galactica. It was the people. As long as Centurion Draco set me the challenge of writing about the people of the Twelve Colonies in a way that remains relatively true to such people, but updates the furniture to the best outer limits practices and theories of our science, I will do that.

As long as SPCGlider has suggested the bound of writing within a strict budget: sets, actions, and actors must be so limited to what a stage company can present or a small studio can film.

This is not MacBeth with a $20 million dollar budget.

Nor is it totally science driven,

After all, if I were to be truly factual in writing my script, the first thing Cain would do is throw a six kilometer nickel/iron asteroid at the planet at fifteen kilometers per second to wipe out the Cylon satellite command base, and kill all the Cylons with thermobaric and hypersonic shock from the impact. Then he would land an ore processor at the impact site. But then I would have no story.

As always;

Damocles February 20th, 2006 03:26 PM

Requiem; A Play of the Pegasus; Cast list.
 
Requiem;




By Frank Reddick





Cast;


Of the Pegasus(CVBS77);


Commander(Admiral) of the Pegasus(CVBS)TG 77.2.1 (Nelena or Nelsus)Cain


Captain of the Pegasus; Herodotus Caman


CAG of the Pegasus; Tyro Glen


Commander Viper Squadron [Blue]; Pegasus; Captain Sheba Cain,


Chief of Marines: Pegasus; Gideon (Hacksaw) Johren,


Ensign Bartimus ^Cluster^ Crabbe.


Doctor Archet


Marine/technician 1 Thoma


Marine/technician 2 Bellam


Marine/technician 3 Croftus


Marine/technician 4 Horati


Of the Phoenix(DDG104)


Captain of the Phoenix(DDG104); Noretu Osbor


Technician 2nd Class; Selene Spright


OOD; Shuttle pilot; Lieutenant Charus Hevo


Condemned Suicide Party


Hassel Petry; communications expert


Lara Petry; life support technician


Ledon Thoma; computer hacker


Tien Thee; explosives expert


Staius Livius; survivalist


Cylons;


Gold #1


Centurion 1


Centurion 2


Centurion 3


Centurion 4


Traitors;


Doctor Ravidge


Davidus Hastur


Mindless Clones as needed

Dawg February 20th, 2006 03:28 PM

I caught the Petry's....

;)

You miss my point about the names. These names - even Guy Fawkes - are obviously of terrestrial origin - Robert, Laura, Patrick, Harvey Gottlieb (Harvey Gottlieb??). The names of the Colonials are equally obviously not, but might have come from the same roots. Adama. Apollo. Casseopiea. Athena. The latter obviously from mythology, as I think Leta was, too (but don't quote me on that), but not common usage (hence my comment about the phone book). They sound other-worldly, but familiar. When you consider that, even Boomer and Starbuck fit - as do Thane, Wolf, etc.

(Oh - I'd lose the Tyrol reference, too. Somebody's already using that one.)

The names, titles, nomenclature, even time referents were used to give BSG a feeling of other-worldliness. It added to the effect of the costuming to give an overall effect of humans not from Earth. Familiar, but different.

By now we're all reasonably familiar with US Military terminology, thanks to shows like JAG and NICS or even Magnum PI and M*A*S*H. When you use CAG, XO, and other NATO-approved acronyms, it becomes more difficult to tell if these people came from 'across the heavens' or across the street. To my mind, they are too familiar.

And your photo would fit very well in the plans for the bridge of a battlestar - or any Colonial warship. Only on a battlestar there's at least one more bank of those stations, and the Commander's station sits above them so he can direct his attention to any or all of them.

Don't misunderstand - I'm not asking you to forego any degree of realism. Just don't be afraid to let your audience do some of the work.

I am
Dawg
:warrior:

Damocles February 20th, 2006 03:31 PM

Requiem; A Play of the Battlestar Pegasus; Act 1
 
First Act


Act 1; Scene 1 Setting, the bridge of the Phoenix


[Note to set dresser]


The set should have a series of banked screens and desks set in two parallel rows, one stage left, and one stage right set obliquely so that the audience(camera) appears to look from the back of the compartment looking forward. At stage rear is a large plexiglass plotting screen that a writer can stand behind and be seen writing backwards as data is relayed to him/her from the various technicians at their consoles.


Stage center is a table where the navigation and battle conferencing is conducted by the bridge battlestaff.


[Note to director]


Most of your action takes place around this table. You are free to block the stage direction as you see fit, but just remember that the central table is a plotter/projector navigation table of the ship's tactical situation. The actors look down into it(the audience(camera) does not see what the actor's see as they describe to each other what they see and what they propose to do about it.


Spright; Sir! Artemus reports by TBS, a positive tylium hit.


Hevo; Where? How? We're in the middle of a WIMP desert. There shouldn't be any dark matter within a hundred years of us!


Spright; By your leave, Sir. They are sending compressed data.


Hevo; Need to log this report, Call the captain?


Spright; I would, Sir. More about the hit......It is bearing 275 our baseline vector at 130 azimuth.


Marine/Technician 1 Thoma; That would be Drone Number Three, Sir. I can patch through Artemus' telemetry and get a repeater if you need it.


Hevo; Relay it to the plotter. Let's see if we have a ghost or if this is answer to our prayers.


Marine/technician 1 Thoma; On the plotter, now.


[The writer behind the plexiglass screen plots a vector from the center of the compass in a bold arrow that leads from the center of the compass to the outside lower right quadrant as the compass faces the audience. The plotter writes 275/130 R? along the arrow. This should be fairly accurate but since the audience(camera) is too far away to see the accuracy of the plot it should be just good enough to give the idea that the tylium source is behind starboard and above the Phoenix.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Act 1; Scene 2


Setting; the Cylon Command Post on Murado;


[Note to set dresser]


You can remove the plotter table and substitute a throne chair in the middle of the stage on a rotating dais. Remove the stage right consoles and screens and put in a wall with a doorway. Hang banners there and across the plexiglass plotting screen to hide that from view.]


[Note to director]


You can have as many Cylon extras as you want to dress out the command center but the only speaking actors should be the indicated dialog parts. The rest of the Cylons should busywork themselves fiddling silently with buttons and levers. Ravidge unless indicated otherwise is either seated on the throne, or is near it as if it is a thing he possesses.


Ravidge;[to Cylon 2] Are you sure that you detected a wormhole inflation?


Cylon 2; What did you misunderstand, Human? Did I not tell you this?


Ravidge(going to a display and looking at it.) Damn your eyes!(He may look at a Cylon as its eye sweeps back and forth) I can't tell from this monitor what direction it is. Adjust it!(The Cylon at the display fiddles with some knobs.)


Cylon 2; Human weakness.


Ravidge; Shut up! I need to see this, you tin buffoon. Ah, that's better. To anti-spinward and below us. Just as I predicted to your idiot masters.......(He walks over to Cylon 2 and pats him on the cheek.) What would you Toasters do without me?


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Act 1; Scene 3


Setting; Cain's quarters aboard the Pegasus


[Note to set dresser]


Dress the set as a sitting room(center), office(right), sleeping quarters(left). Provide a table(desk) with at least three chairs.


[Note to director]


Provide hand props to the actors, to substitute for the big plotter table that we see used on the bridge set. These can be anything from clipboards to notebook computers. If you have the resources give Cain's quarter's a small plexiglass plot screen that duplicates the Phoenix's bridge plexiglass screen plot throughout the play.


Cain; Its a trap.


Caman; How can you say that?


Cain (Looks at his handheld) This is a tachyon desert. No dark matter either. Yet out of nowhere, Artemus gets a tylium read from one of her drones? I know Archet is a miracle worker and he told us that this B class star would be a WIMP source, but.........


Caman(looks at his watch); Speaking of Archet, he's late, again.


Archet enters; This is incredible... The power! Why with such a projector, I could solve the....


Cain; Doctor Archet?


Archet(Pays attention to the two Colonial officers present.) Oh sorry. I was reading the data from Artemus' Probe Number Three. Astonishing. She sent this before she was corked.


Caman; The Artemus?


Archet(Looking befuddled); No, Of course not! Probe Number Three. .


Cain smiles. What news did Probe Number Three send us, Doctor, before she was ^corked^ ?


Archet(Going into his ^lecture before the mentally handicapped^ mode) Simple enough, Admiral. The probe jumped into the target system as I planned, and made a run in on the star on a galactic north/south anti-spinward parabola.(Archet shows this with his hands and makes whooshing sound to illustrate the path the probe took.)


Cain(gently chiding); All good, Doctor, but what did the probe send back?


Archet;(becomes serious) It sent back this.(Hands over his handheld to Cain.)


Cain reads aloud; From Artemus. Fourth planet WIMP concentration detected. Probe Three changed course to flyby. Tylium confirmed present in 3% matrix dilution. Probe destroyed by particle beam fire. Analysis indicates planet fortified by close orbiting gun satellites......Presumed Colonial technology from the particle distribution spall.


Caman; Why those dirty bastards.


Cain; You're learning, Herodotus. The Machines aren't stupid. They had to be driving us toward something.


Caman; Kind of an expensive trap, using and losing three basestars.


Archet; Machine logic, Captain. They herd you into a fuel desert, then they run you combat-ragged until you have to refuel. Naturally the Machines have staked out the only tylium source in the whole region. If you assault the tylium supply and the Cylons lose it? They blow that world, and notify their brothers where we are, and we? We are stranded. The Cylon pursuers bring in as many Machines as they need, and they kill all of us. Simple Machine Logic.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


break...........................

Damocles February 20th, 2006 03:35 PM

Requiem; A Play of the Battlestar Pegasus, Act 1 (Cont).
 
Act 1 continues......


Act 1; Scene 4


Setting; Hillside on the planet Murado.


[Note to set dresser]


Use a backdrop; either a scene of a petroleum refinery, or an open pit mine. The rest of the stage(camera shot) is bare, (except for a Cylon vehicle if you can arrange it)


[Note to the director]


Once again you can use whatever Cylon extras you need to dress out the stage. These are armed with rifles. There are ^clones^(obviously humanoid) which are workers. These march across the stage at irregular intervals carrying tools. The indication should be that these clones are the worker ants to a tylium ore processing factory-hive.


Gold Cylon# 1; Report.


Cylon 2; The Colonial drone approached within one tenth of a second before we attained a fire solution. It is certain that we were detected.


Gold Cylon #1; Did you send off the contact report?


Cylon 2; Yes.


Gold Cylon #1; Are you certain that our own preparations are complete?


Cylon 2: Yes. As instructed, solonite charges are set in the tylium dumps. Query?


Gold Cylon #1; Proceed.


Cylon 2; Why do we risk the destruction of so much valuable refined fuel? We have this world heavily defended, thanks to the Human traitor, Ravidge. The Colonials cannot possibly risk a full-fledged assault upon this place. Our guns outrange theirs, and they dare not risk destabilizing so much dark matter. The explosion would destroy everything within this star system. It is not logical.


Gold Cylon #1(Leoben); Humans do not deal in logic. They deal in need. We exploit this. The traitor, Ravidge, needed us to build his particle projector; so that he could satisfy his curiosity; concerning why top spin quarks wobble while bottom spin quarks do not. The Colonials of the Pegasus fleet, now, need fuel. So they will ignore the immutable logic of their situation, which is to submit to us and hope for survival. They act instead, in defiance, on their need.


Cylon 2; How long do you intend to allow the traitor, Ravidge, to live?


Gold Cylon #1; Until I get Pegasus.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Act 1 Scene 5


Setting; Wardroom aboard the Pegasus


[Note to set dresser]


Use the set that you dressed for Cain's quarters. Change the wall hangings and the furniture. You should have a conference table rigged up like the navigation/plotter you used on the Phoenix's bridge set. Likewise there should be the Plexiglass plot in the back of the set(camera shot) to provide a en camera aid to the audience(camera POV) as to what Cain's merry band of pirates scheme to do to the Cylons.]


[Note to the director]


Block this scene, and subsequent scenes, carefully; so that the actors don't foul each other as they move to scribble on the plexiglass. Make sure that the actors write large enough and bold enough, so that the action, planned, is clear enough to show the audience what is going on in the play as it progresses.


Cain speaks(Sitting at the head of the table), looks down the into tabletop, as if the admiral is peering into a well of space.); Its a blue-white B class star. The tylium is on the fourth planet. That planet has the thickest belt of gun satellites I've ever seen. And we need that fuel. I'm open to suggestions, gentlemen?


Tyro Glen; We've war-gamed a standard assault, Sir. It doesn't work. Even if we jump in on top of them, a dozen of those gunsats will skewer us like a Geminese magician doing a sword trick.


Cain; Well, Mister, what do you suggest?


Archet(interrupting) These gunsats may be Colonial particle beam weapon platforms, but the layout is Cylon. Three distinct discrete layers, like an onion. If that is Cylon true, then, I bet my school key, that it is a Cylon control logic governing the defense. They will have a central command..........


Caman; So what are you suggesting, Doc?


Crabbe; With respect, Sir, he's suggesting that we take the command center, and thereby knock out the satellite system.


Galen(Looking at Gideon ^Hacksaw^ Johron); A commando raid?


Johren(Obviously annoyed at the CAG); Its possible. I have to assume that the raid party is expendable, so it will be a volunteer mission.


Johron goes over to the plexiglass plot screen and he puts up a transparency of the tylium planet, that he picks up from the conference table. He marks an X on the transparency.


Johron; That is where the Artemus probe RDFed the most transmissions from the planet. So that is where I expect the tin-heads put their command bunker. Idiots don't disperse. Here is where the tylium dumps are.(He draws this) I guarantee, that they are mined. So we have to sneak in and knock out two objectives; the satellite command, and the detonation master control.(He draws this on the planet map.) .


Cain; Very well. Mister Johron, you will handle the planet-side details. Tyro, I expect you to find a way to get that raid party in. If we can defuse the Cylon mines and turn off the satellites , we can close-orbit the planet with the Artemus and rail-gun the Toasters dirt-side from altitude. Kinetics. We get the fuel......


Archet; And those lovely particle projectors.......


Cain; My thoughts exactly.....


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


End of Act 1

Damocles February 20th, 2006 03:38 PM

Requiem; A Play of the Battlestar Pegasus, Act 2
 
Second Act

Act 2

Act 2; Scene1


Setting; Brig of the Pegasus


[Note to set dresser]


Set the stage as if you were looking through a fourth force wall from the audience(camera) point of view.into a box of a prison compartment. It may be possible to have the toilet sink combo on the back of the brig cell and a pair of steel bunk beds(left) and a bench(right) as furnishings.If you can mange it, have a pull down table next to the toilet as a common eating work area the four prisoners share.


[Note to director]


Block the scene as needed. The Colonials segregate prisoners by gender, but not rank, so this cell contains only men. {Dress the prisoners in single color jump-suits with socks and sandals.} These four have been thrown together, just within the following hour, and they don't really know each other, or why they are together. They are all condemned men.]


Hassel Petry; Hey you. Ledon Thoma! I know you. You were one of Caman's golden boys. Couldn't find a Cylon system you couldn't crack. What did you do? Try to run numbers on the Admiral's daughter?


Ledon Thoma(who is a powerful man for a geek) jumps on Hassel Petrey. It takes the combined efforts, of the other two condemned men, to pull Ledon off Hassel.


Tien Thee; That's enough! Save your breath! You'll need it when they put us out through the airlock! We know why they have us. We don't need to satisfy individual curiosities.


(The four of them turn when they hear a door open(sound effect), to see an armed party of one officer and three guards[enter stage/shot left] approach the front of their cell. This party is led by Bartimus Crabbe, the ensign we saw from the command conference in Act 1; Scene 5)


Staius Livius; Well if it isn't ^Buster^ come to see us off! Crashed any Vipers lately, Sir?


Crabbe; No thanks to you, Staius. That number you did on my auto-pilot was cute.


Staius Livius; Well I try to do good works, when I can.


Crabbe motions to the guards and the Guards draw pistols. Marine 2 moves stage right to a wall lever outside the ^presumed^ force wall. He pulls the lever down. [sound effect] The force wall is off.


Crabbe; You four are condemned men. Its out the airlock for the lot of you.


Tien Thee; Yeah.Yeah. Without a pressure suit. We know the jokes. Only thing, Ensign(said with a sneer) it isn't our scheduled time to go. I still have seven ship days and my appeal to work through.


Crabbe; Forget the appeal, Tien. You blew that compartment out, and Admiral Cain knows it. He can't wait to get rid of you. If you wanted to commit suicide why didn't you cut yourself shaving?


Tien Thee; You wouldn't understand.


Crabbe; I don't need to. You four are all running out of time. But......


Hassel Petry(perking up); But what? You offering us a way out? I heard a rumor.


Crabbe; Yes, a way. Likely you'll foul it up and die, but you could make it. If you four want to. It means you put your selves in my hands and do what you are told.(Crabbe looks at Hassel Petrey)


Hassel Petrey; I read you loud and clear.


Crabbe; Sir.


Hassel Petry, Tien Thee, and Staius Livius say together; Sir.


Crabbe; Whats the matter with him (pointing to Ledon Thoma)


Marine/Technician 1 Thoma; Thats my brother, sir. He's mute.(Marine/Technician 1 signs to his brother. Ledon Thoma nods his head once in a firm yes.)


Marine/technician 1 Thoma; He understands, Sir.


Hassel Petry; Uh, Sir, I don't know if I mentioned this, but my wife......


Crabbe: I already selected her, Hassel. I needed somebody on the team with BRAINS.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Act 2; Scene 2


Setting; Cain's quarters aboard the Pegasus


[Note to set dresser]


Same set up as previous for Cain's quarters If there is the plexiglass plotting board, then show the transparency of the planet Murado seen from Act 1 Scene 5. The words ^Aero-shell insertion 1^ with arrows indicating the primary and secondary drop objectives on the planet Murado near the two X's that Gideon Johron drew should be boldly marked and labelled There should be a meal laid out for two people.


[Note to the director]


This is the setup for the raid. The two actors should do this as one continuous read, sitiing over their dinner. they can improvise the conversation as they eat.Lara Petry wears the same prison garb as the condemned men. Cain is in full Colonial dress uniform/


Cain; What do you think of the plan?


Lara Petry; Tyro Glen never could plan an operation. You don't want to risk the Peg on a run like this. You'd be better off using either the Artemus or the Phoenix. They can jump in danger close, release kinetic ordnance on a flyby, kike you meant it, and we can ride the aero-shells in with the ordnance garbage. The Cylons will think we are the decoys and ignore us, while they shoot the real stuff out of the sky.


Cain; I thought about that, but won't the toasters assume that we wouldn't risk nuclear warheads for fear that the radioactives will set off the tylium?


Lara; I'm no explosives expert, but doesn't the Peg use sandcaster missiles to break up Cylon massed missile attacks? Use sandcasters as a wide area kinetic munition?


Cain(laughing); You've talked to Tien. Yes, we can do that. A sandcaster when it hits the ground? It would produce a surface effect, not to dissimilar from rail-gun bombardment. The Cylons would have to engage the missiles.


Lara Petry; Mines. If we are going to make this idiot plan work, the warheads have to be ballistic mines. If the Cylons see missiles they'll shoot at everything incoming!


Cain; You really think so?


Lara Petry; I know so.


They eat for a brief while.


Lara Petry; About the aero shells/


Cain: Three of them. Two of them will contain the raid party along with the gear you'll need to survive on the planet. The third will contain the land-ram and the heavy weapons.


Lara Petry; So the Vulcanus is turning out three ^boulders^ that we can fly down to the planet?


Cain; Yes. One will be flown by Ensign Crabbe. The Second will be flown by a Lieutenant Charus Hevo. I don't know him. he's a volunteer from the Phoenix. And the third will be flown by my daughter.


Lara Petry; I know Hevo. There's no Warrior braver or better.


Cain; That's good to know. Tell me, Lara. Why did you ever marry a scoundrel like Hassel Petry?(Cain indicates Lara's prisoner garb)


Lara Petry; I was an idiot, Admiral, and I was in love.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Break.......................

Damocles February 21st, 2006 12:52 PM

Requiem; A Play of the Battlestar Pegasus, Act 2(Cont.)
 
Second Act (continued)

Act 2; Scene3


Setting; the Cylon Command Post on Murado;


[Note to set dresser]


Use the Phoenix bridge set and redress.


You can remove the plotter table and substitute a throne chair in the middle of the stage on a rotating dais. Remove the stage right consoles and screens and put in a wall with a doorway. Hang banners there and across the plexiglass plotting screen to hide that from view.The change from Act 1; Scene 2, is now the Cylons have installed their own version of a plexiglass plotting board(canted stage/cameraPOV right) with a Centurion assigned to plotting duties.


[Note to director]


Carried forward from Act 1, Scene 2


The Centurion event-plotting extra should be plainly visible, so that the audience can see him plot the Cylon side of the battle; as the actors act out the scene. Blocking should be such; so that the audience/camera POV should be un-obstructed.


Ravidge (enters [stage/camera] left and hurries toward his throne.) Why did you wait so late to call me? (He swings the throne around as he sits in it, to face and see the plexiglass plotting board. He is mostly in profile as he oversees the unfolding) battle.


Centurion 3; (At the nearest Cylon workstation to the throne) Outer satellites detected two wormhole inflation events, fifteen minutes ago. Two maneuvering objects inbound. IFF radio challenge rejected. Objects tracked at one tenth photonic measured interval.


Ravidge; One tenth the speed of light? Kinetics.... Do you have a mass on the objects? Well do you, you fool?


Centurion 3; Objects do not register on mass discriminators.


Ravidge; Space vessels and small rocks, then. For a moment I thought that might have been.......


Gold Cylon #1(enters [stage/camera right] followed by Cylon 2) Might have been what, traitor Ravidge?


Ravidge (stands); I dislike when you call me that!


Centurion 2; The question asked, has not been answered. You were about to say?


Ravidge; That it is Cain.


Gold Cylon #1; You see the information? (He points to the various Centurions working.[stage/camera left].). The signal returns show objects too small to be a battlestar.(He does not address Ravidge as he says this. His comments are aimed at Centurion 2)


Centurion 2; Traitor Ravidge?


Ravidge(reluctantly leaves his throne and goes along the Cylon work stations.He picks up a handheld device from a Cylon work station he approaches, that he uses, to help him to change the Cylon instrumentation readings to something that his human senses can interpret).


Ravidge; Why two wormholes? One of them is obviously inbound to pass us here in a close flyby. That one is a parabola. Conforms to that probe I destroyed three weeks ago.(He looks directly at Gold Cylon #1 as he says this) This other one is a hyperbola? No it can't be!


Cylon 3; Updating the inbounds. First object will close approach in two minutes.


(The Centurion, plotting the approach of the objects, should draw two plain bold tracks coming in parallel to the planet Murado. As the tracks come closer the first track should describe a hyperbola. The track that follows behind should be a parabola.)


Ravidge; This is why you need me, Goldie. I see the plan, now The plan is simple. The attackers send two ships.One carries kinetics, and the other is a recon bird. This is Cain. He's probing us. Apparently I killed his first probe, before it sent back anything useful! He's testing our defenses before he risks his precious Pegasus to my satellites' tender mercies.


Gold Cylon #1; You suggest that the hyperbolic ship is a bomber? That is not possible. Cain wants the tylium. Nuclear weapons would destabilize the fuel, rendering it worthless.


Centurion 2; Traitor Ravidge suggests kinetics, Leader One. Perhaps he believes that the bomber will release guided impactors intended to hit this command center?


Gold Cylon #1; Impossible. The Colonials are unable to hit anything at one tenth fraction of photonic velocity interval.


Ravidge; Neither can you, Cylons. Aha! Cain you are a clever devil.(Ravidge returns to his throne and sits with a flourish,) If you will just stand and watch, Goldie, I'll show you how a Human handles this little problem while you, Cylons, debate among yourselves, how impossible it is for us, Humans, to hit anything at a tenth of the speed of light.


Centurion 3; Updating.


(Now the Centurion, plotting the two tracks on the plexiglass, should draw a big bold arrow from the ^bomber^ to the planet Murado and print ^mines^.)


Ravidge; That is conventional enough, Cain. Rods from the gods. The Quorum outlawed that, but you wouldn't care, would you? DRADIS will discriminate those in about thirty seconds, and then you'll see what my satellites can do, Cain.(Ravidge is lost in himself as he renders this soliloquy. All the Cylons are silent, either working in obedience to Ravidge's orders or in the case of Gold Cylon #1, and Centurion 2 watching.)


Centurion 3; Updating.


(The Centurion, plotting the attack on the plexiglass plotting board, draws the bold arrow intersecting the planet Murado.)


Ravidge; Fire-plan six. Wait until the range is one thirtieth of a second, then cluster-fire at the strongest target echoes. Sustained tracking fire, as the targets pass through the outer and middle satellite belts.


COMMENCE!


Centurion 3; By your command!


Ravidge(grinning); Brace yourself, Goldie! There are going to be leakers at the fringes!.


([sound effects of explosions] Cylons, not seated, stumble and fall in response to a particularly loud explosion.[darken scene lighting to indicate power loss.]).








Gold Cylon #1; Restore power and communications at once!


Centurion 3; By your command!


([re-light the scene with subdued light] Various fallen Cylons should stand up.)


Ravidge;(looking at the ceiling) Hah! Nice try, Cain! I'm still here, you bastard!


Gold Cylon #1; What happened, traitor Ravidge?


Ravidge(Looking at his handheld) Well. you just lost your primary airfield, and most of your Raiders. Your alpha legion barracks, and presumably your alpha legion, is gone; and they got the powerplant. I told you to disperse your assets. But you are Cylons.


Gold Cylon #1; Disaster.


Ravidge; Nonsense. The tylium dumps and this command post remain. Your beta legion is intact. We have our own power supply. We have positive satellite communication and control. We've been scratched, but we aren't hurt.


Gold Cylon #1; Loss of a Centurion legion and a Raider cohort is not ^being hurt^?


Ravidge; No. Not if it proves my point.


Centurion 2; Which is traitor Ravidge?


Ravidge; If it had been up to you, you would have lost this command center, Goldie. That spread. those impactors, that were thrown at us, Cain carefully orchestrated to make you disperse my satellite fire. You would protect the installations to the east of us. CAIN aimed his kineticas, to hide what you would have considered artillery longs and shorts around those sites. You would miss completely that some of those longs were deliberately aimed at US. I didn't. I sacrificed, what was necessary, to keep the fuel and this base intact. As long as we have those two items,. Cain has to bring Pegasus here to get the fuel. He needs his Vipers to clear out the satellites. If he tries, he dies.


Gold Cylon #1; Traitor Ravidge. I know that you let the targets be destroyed to prove that you are essential. That was your deliberate choice. I continue to let you live, despite this, to serve the Cylon Empire. That is my choice. Remember that.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

break......................................

Damocles February 21st, 2006 01:59 PM

Requiem; A play of the Battlestar Pegasus, Act 2(Continued)
 
Second Act(continued)

Act 2; Scene 4

Setting; The Bridge of the Phoenix


[Note to set dresser]


The set should have a series of banked screens and desks set in two parallel rows, one stage left, and one stage right set obliquely so that the audience(camera) appears to look from the back of the compartment looking forward. At stage rear is a large plexiglass plotting screen that a writer can stand behind and be seen writing backwards as data is relayed to him/her from the various technicians at their consoles.


Stage center is a table where the navigation and battle conferencing is conducted by the bridge battlestaff.


[Note to the director]


Block this scene so that the actors do not obstruct the plexiglass plotting board. The Colonial technician who plots the battle should use the same marking conventions that were used in Act 1 Scene 5.


Captain Nerotu Osbor; Take us out of here. Pitch us up, and set us on the planned outbound; bearinjg 110, azimuth 036. Mister Gheron.


Technician 1{Gheron}; Sir, Aye. Aye. 110 by 036. Three minutes to entry.


Selene Spright; Sir, we have a confirmed contact of Moffitt One.


Captain Nerotu Osbor; Any word on Two and Three?


Selene Spright; No Sir.


Captain Nerotu Osbor; Its too soon for Moffitt One. They must be off course. Mistress Spright, I need a contact confirmation on the others.(He looks down into the navigation/plotter table to check on the Phoenix's position.


Selene Spright; Sir, I cannot report what I do not have.


(There is about a half minute as the Colonial technician replays on the plexiglass plotting screen what we saw played out in the Cylon command bunker on the planet Murado, in Act 2 Scene 3. During the wait; at irregular intervals Technician 2 gives a running commentary )


Technician 2: Kinetics entering gunsat kill-fire zone........... The satellites use clustered continuous fire, Sir.......................... They concentrate fire on the center of our groupings................... Tracking confirms................................... The defense is letting the fringe masses through, concentrating on the center of the spread.........................................Damage assessment.....................Bright flashes we see at target Cylon objectives Nimbus and Stratus, presumed destroyed..............Objective Cumulus, secondary explosion..............Aero-shells in the atmosphere....................We've lost their tracks..............................No contact


Selene Spright; The Cylon command center is off the air!(Cheers on the bridge.)


Captain Nerutu Osbor; Belay that! They'll be back up shortly. Try to contact the Moffitts, Mistress Spright.


Selene Spright; Plasma sheath, Sir. Ionization makes radio impossible. We're going too fast.and they're braking too hard.


Captain Nerutu Osbor; Frak.


Selene Spright; The Cylons are back up.


Technician 2; Secondary spall falling. Confirmed. We wiped out their airbase. Confirmed powerplant hit. Confirmed at least one barracks complex destroyed..


Captain Neretu Osbor(says to self in almost a prayer); Thank the gods. We did better than I hoped.


Technician 1; Sir, Wormhole inflation.


Captain Neretu Osbor; Take us through, Mister Gheron.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Act 2; Scene 5


Setting; Hillside on the planet Murado


[Note to set dresser]


Use a backdrop; either a scene of a forested hills, or an open glen.(This backdrop can be used for the following two scenes, as well, as you can variate its look with stage or setting foliage so that the audience/camera sees a different scene dressed each time.). The rest of the stage(camera shot) is bare, (except for a Colonial aero-shell[stage/camera left] smoking if you can arrange it. It should have the War of the Worlds lander feel to it. If you cannot build it, then indicate it [offstage/outframe] as being present using harmless FX smoke blown in stage/camera left )


[Note to the director]


Once again you use (two) Colonial extras you need to dress out the scene. They move into and out of action [stage/camera left] carrying supplies which they pile up at irregular intervals. The Colonials are dressed for planetary combat with camouflaged uniforms. They are armed with rifles and pistols[see props notes].


(Two Marines piling the supplies out of the crashed aero-shell)


Marine/technician 1 Thoma; Is the captain all right? The admiral will kill us, if anything happens to his daughter.


Marine/technician 2 Bellam; I presume she can speak for herself, Sarge.


Sheba Cain(limping badly; enters stage left); Thanks for your concern guys. Where are we?


Marine/technician 1 Thoma; I have no idea.


Marine/technician 2 Bellam(looks reproachfully at Thoma); Begging your pardon, Ma'am, but aren't you the conductor for this little trip?


Sheba Cain; That's true. Did the cargo make it?


Marine/technician 2 Bellam; I haven't checked. You want me to wake them up?


Sheba Cain; Not yet. First I've got to find out where we are. Then I've got to find out if the others made it.


Marine/technician 1 Thoma; We should have come down together.


Sheba Cain; That is enough, Sergeant. You may lead the assault element, but I still command. We work with what we find, not with what we should. Save the after-the-facts, for the review; if we live to see it. Now what do we have?


Marine/technician 2 Bellam;(Paws through pile of supplies, so far piled up.) We have the water purifier, field rations for three days, our personal weapons, the clothes we wear, a set of field glasses, charges for the pistols and rifles, one radio. (Shrugs) Most of the stuff was tossed and jumbled when you dodged that Cylon missile Ma'am.)


Sheba Cain; Couldn't be helped. At least the shot we traveled in with, hit the battery before it radioed a contact report.


Marine/technician 1 Thoma; We hope.


Sheba Cain(glaring); I said that was enough, Mister.


Marine/technician 2 Bellam; Okay, Sarge. I really need help getting the rest of the stuff out of the shell.......(Looks significantly at Sheba Cain).


Sheba Cain; That makes sense. I'll go to the top of the hill and see if I can take a sighting. You two finish off the salvage, and then I'll decide what we do next. First the position fix.


Marine/technician 2 Bellam(digs through the supplies again and produces a sextant; Here's the sextant, Ma'am.)





Sheba Cain; Thanks, corporal. Ancient, but reliable. I just hope we are close enough to the Cylon command bunker.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


break........................

Damocles February 23rd, 2006 08:38 AM

Requiem; A Play of the Battlestar Pegasus; Act 2(Continued)
 
Act 2(Continues)

Act 2; Scene 6


Setting; Another hillside on the planet Murado


[Note to set dresser]


Use a backdrop; either a scene of a forested hills, or an open glen for this and the following scenes. The rest of the stage(camera shot) is bare, (except for a Colonial aero-shell[stage/camera right] smoking if you can arrange it. It should have the War of the Worlds lander feel to it. If you cannot build it, then indicate it [offstage/outframe] as being present using harmless FX smoke blown in stage/camera right )


[Note to the director]


Once again you use (two) Colonial extras you need to flesh out the scene. They move into and out of action [stage/camera right] carrying supplies which they pile up at irregular intervals. The Colonials are dressed for planetary combat with camouflaged uniforms. They are armed with rifles and pistols[see props notes].


(Two colonial Marines enter stage/camera right. They have ruck-sacks and are in march order. One of them carries a device that looks like a radio locator. The Colonial Pilot who immediately follows them has his pistol drawn, He is carrying a map case. Two condemned men follow him. they have rucksacks and are uniformed, as the Marines, but significantly none of them are armed.)


Tien Thee; You had to drop the mortar in the river, when we unloaded, didn't you?


Staius Livius; Not my fault!


Charus Hevo(turns around and reaches into his map case, the two condemned men promptly stagger and fall to the ground, as if they've been hit with a jolt of electricity, which they have.); I'm tired of treating you, two, like lab mice. Start behaving like men, or you won't survive this little jaunt.


Marine/technician 3 Croftus; Sir, I hate to interrupt your morale lesson, but I think we 'landed dead onto the objective.


Charus Hevo Are you sure, Sergeant?


Marine/technician 3 Croftus; That is the aero-shell's neutrino signal. Signal bearing that a way.(Points offstage/outcamera left) That must be the landram.


Charus Hevo; How far?


Marine/technician 3 Croftus; At our pace? About an hour's walk.


Marine/technician 4 Horati; I'll scout ahead, Sir. If I find it is Moffitt Two, I'll bring them here. Save you the hike.


Charus Hevo(shakes his head); I sit on my butt, too much, as it is. We go together.


Marine/technician 3 Croftus(slaps Horati on the back jovially); I told you, he was Marine Material!(Grins at Charus Hevo) Shall we go collect our taxi, Sir?(Flourishes the invitation with a hand gesture).


Tien Thee(interrupting); I hate to annoy you heroes, but how am I supposed to blow up the Cylon detonator master control; or eliminate the command bunker without the mortar?(Glares at Stavius Livius)


Charus Hevo(good mood broken); Come on mice. If the Sergeant or I don't have any ideas, I suggest you come up with some of your own. There is no way off this mud-ball, unless we accomplish the mission. I don't expect you to understand that Staius, but Tien can explain it to you. No way off. Now on your feet!


(The Marines, the Pilot, and the condemned men gather their gear and themselves and march offstage/offcamera right. Tien Thee and Staius Livius complain in whispers about the loads they carry as they march.)


Staius Livius; What do you have in these packs Tien? Rocks?


Tien Thee; Solonite.


Staius Livius; Solonite!?!?!?


Tien Thee; Yeah, Solonite in the mortar rounds.


Staius Livius; Are you out of your mind?


Tien Thee; I sure am! Now shut up. I'm thinking.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Act 2; Scene 7


Setting; Yet another hillside on the planet Murado.


[Note to set dresser]


Use a backdrop; either a scene of a forested hills, or an open glen.(This backdrop can be used from the following two scenes, as you can variate its look with stage or setting foliage, so that the audience/camera sees a different scene dressed this time.). The rest of the stage(camera shot) is bare, (except for a Colonial aero-shell[stage/camera left] smoking if you can arrange it. It should have the War of the Worlds lander feel to it. If you cannot build it, then indicate it [offstage/outframe] as being present using harmless FX smoke blown in stage/camera left )


[Note to the director]


The three actors should be made up as if they have fought and lost a fire. They should have nothing with them except for the clothes they wear, their packs, and their weapons. One of them carries a radio.


Three Colonials, the Pilot, the condemned woman, and the Marine; stagger from the thick smoke stage/camera left.).


Ensign Bartimus Crabbe; I screwed up.


Lara Petry; Its not your fault, Barty. Its mine.


Gideon(Hacksaw) Johron; With all due respect, Ma'am, it is his fault. He delayed using the decelerator, until it was too late. It overloaded and caught fire. That cost us our supplies the landram, and my squad of Marines. It almost cost us our own lives.


Ensign Bartimus Crabbe; You seem real choked up about your Marines.


Gideon(Hacksaw) Johron(gently to the ensign, as he teaches him the facts of life.); This is not the time for me to mourn my men. I've got to figure out a way to get us to our objectives. I assume that we are the only survivors.


Lara Petry(Shakes her head); I made it too complex, I should have......


Gideon(Hacksaw) Johron(shakes her); Listen to me! Listen to me!


Ensign Bartimus Crabbe; Hush!(Grabs field glasses from his pack; as he hears the sound of an approaching vehicle and looks stage/camera right.) Hey!(He shoves the field glasses at Gideon(Hacksaw) Johron.) Is that?


Gideon(Hacksaw) Johron; Yes it is, Mister. THAT is a gift from the gods. A Cylon Chariot, complete with Centurions. Probably from that base to the east of us, that we saw corked, when we came in. Perimeter patrol? Well if they are, they soon won't be.(He hands the field glasses to Laura Petry)


Laura Petry; They are stopping. The gunner is climbing out. There are the two drivers. There is the commander. He is silver They have a Human with them! (She hands the field glasses to Gideon(Hacksaw) Johron. She stoops down and sketches upon the ground The audience/camera does not see what she draws. Ensign Bartimus Crabbe watches her with intense interest.)


Gideon(Hacksaw) Johron; Typical Tin-heads. They are putting out solar panels. Means that their beamed power source is gone. Good for us. Their base is definitely dead. What is that man doing with them?


Lara Petry; Who cares? We kill him, if he gets in the way. Take him alive and squeeze him for it, if we can.(Shew finishes drawing and stands up. Gideon(Hacksaw) Johron. and Ensign Bartimus Crabbe look upon her with shock and disgust as she says this. Lara Petry notices.)


Gideon(Hacksaw) Johron; You just cannot kill him without cause.


Lara Petry(gives him the hard look); We most certainly can. I am not a nice person, Major; or have you forgotten WHY, I am here; or YOU?......(silence four beats) Now,(she points to the ground) here's my plan. Your input please?(She bends down to the ground where she drew her plan, along with the Marine and the Pilot; to explain her plan) We hit them from the North and the East in a crossfire.


Gideon(Hacksaw) Johron; That works.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


End of Act 2

Damocles February 23rd, 2006 12:13 PM

Requiem; A Play of the Battlestar Pegasus; Act 3
 
Third Act

Act 3; Scene 1


Setting; Wardroom aboard the Pegasus


[Note to set dresser]


Use the set that you dressed for Cain's quarters. Change the wall hangings and the furniture. You should have a conference table rigged up like the navigation/plotter you used on the Phoenix's bridge set. Likewise there should be the Plexiglass plot in the back of the set(camera shot) to provide an en camera aid to the audience/camera POV. The conference table should have papers scattered across it; as if the meeting that just concluded, was messy and very heated.


[Note to the director]


Block this scene, and subsequent scenes, carefully; so that the actors don't foul each other as they move to scribble on the plexiglass. Make sure that the actors write large enough and bold enough, so that the action, planned, is clear enough to show the audience what is going on in the play as it progresses. There are big question marks on the projected aero-shell landing sites that


(The two actors interact around the table.)


Cain;(Looking at the plexiglass plotting board.); I should have gone in with the Peg.


Herodotus Caman; Are you serious? Trust the plan, Admiral.(He looks at the Plexiglass plotting board.) You do have a habit of charging in before the circumstances clear up. Petry knows what she is doing, and your daughter, Captain Cain adapts well.


Cain; I should not have let her go.


Herodotus Caman; That is the parent, not the Admiral talking.


Cain; What would you do?


Herodotus Caman; Wait.


Cain; We need a plan for failure.


Herodotus Caman; We have one.


Cain; Not that asteroid thing again!


Herodotus Caman; It all comes down to kinetics, Admiral.


Cain; You know what Doctor Archet said.


Herodotus Caman; Yes, after the asteroid hits, it would be a year before we could exploit the tylium deposits. Forget about the refined fuel. Poof. Still, it is a plan.


Cain; Your stupid plan. I won't consider it.


Herodotus Caman; I did not hear anything, better.(He waves at the papers on the table.)


Cain; I will wait. Doctor Archet might come up with something.


(Herodotus Caman has won his argument, so we see him privately smile. The worried Admiral lets the parental concern show. The Admiral keeps looking at the Plexiglass plotting board.)


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Setting; Hillside on the planet Murado.


[Note to set dresser]


Use a backdrop; either a scene of a petroleum refinery, or an open pit mine. The rest of the stage/camera shot is bare, (except for a Cylon Chariot vehicle if you can arrange it. Otherwise use [sound effects of tank or truck] to indicate a vehicle in the vicinity ) Blow heavy stage smoke across the stage/camera frame right.


[Note to the director]


Once again you can use whatever Cylon extras you need to dress out the stage. These are armed with rifles. There are ^clones^(obviously humanoid) which are workers. These march across the stage at irregular intervals carrying tools. The indication should be that these clones are the worker ants to a tylium ore processing factory-hive.


Gold Cylon #1; The traitor Ravidge allowed this to happen.


Centurion 1; Explain?


Gold Cylon #1; He allows our garrisons to die in the atack, but he preserves his toys, the cloned miners and the satellites He demonstrates his superiority over us. He forgets the true situation, as he nourishes his ego.


Centurion 1; Kill him.


Gold Cylon #1; Not yet.


Centurion 1; Why?


Gold Cylon #1; We do not yet understand the full integration control of his satellites.


Centurion 1; How many times must he load his programming algorithmn before we have the copy?


Gold Cylon #1; Twice more before a final solution. Then you will kill him.


Centurion 1; With the bayonet. Human bleeding affects me in a positive fashion.


( Gold Cylon #1; gives Centurion 1 the funny Cylon look. Something is not right here.)


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Act 3; Scene3


Setting; the Cylon Command Post on Murado;


[Note to set dresser]


Use the Phoenix bridge set and redress.


You can remove the plotter table and substitute a throne chair in the middle of the stage on a rotating dais. Remove the stage right consoles and screens and put in a wall with a doorway. Hang banners there and across the plexiglass plotting screen to hide that from view.The change from Act 1; Scene 2, is now the Cylons have installed their own version of a plexiglass plotting board(canted stage/cameraPOV right) with a Centurion assigned to plotting duties.


[Note to director]


Carried forward from Act 1, Scene 2


The Centurion event-plotting extra should be plainly visible, so that the audience can see him plot the Cylon side of the story; as the actors act out the scene. This time a transparency of the Cylon command bunker and the surrounding Cylon installations on a polar Mercator projection map should be overlaid on the Plexiglass plotting board. Prominent X's should mark out the labelled airbase, the alpha legion barracks, and the Cylon powerplant to indicate a destroyed condition. There are three labelled circles indicating the two Cylon refined tylium dumps, and the command bunker.. Blocking should be such; so that the audience/camera POV should be un-obstructed.


Ravidge(sitting on his throne and fumbles with his handheld. {the guy has a thing about thrones}); Where the infernity did that radio signal come from? Don't you have it direction found yet?


Centurion 3; Insufficient time to establish a fix.


Ravidge; Idiot. You just said it came from the direction of the alpha legion base. Since there is no more alpha legion base, it is obviously coming from a non-Cylon source.


Centurion 3; The signal could be from one of our perimeter patrols.


Ravidge; Impossible, We have my satellite photos of the area. Nothing but craters and blown down trees. Nothing survives a Cain strike. Nothing.


Centurion 3; We survive.


Ravidge; Only because I insured it.


Centurion 3; We have the signal source data.


Ravidge(gets up from his throne with his handheld, and walks over to Centurion 3's work station); Show me! He holds up his handheld waiting for it to resolve the Cylon presentation into something that his Human eyes can see.)


Centurion 3; It is Chariot 52, one of our perimeter patrols. It transmits a locator beacon signal.


Ravidge; A distress call? Well send out an aircraft to investigate.


Centurion 3; Impossible.


Ravidge; And why is that?


Centurion 3; The airbase is gone. We have your satellite photos of the area. Nothing but craters and blown down trees. Nothing survives a Cain strike. Nothing. Since there is no airbase, it is obviously impossible to send an aircraft to investigate.


Ravidge(in humiliated fury); Send out a Chariot! No, send out two Chariots. Make sure that the crews are heavily armed. I want to be sure.


Centurion 3; That will weaken the Satellite command bunker perimeter defense below acceptable limits.


Ravidge; I don't have to explain myself to you, you tin-plated bread-browner! Every unknown is a threat! I want to know what that Chariot 52 is doing still intact.


Centurion 3; By your command.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Damocles February 23rd, 2006 02:52 PM

Requiem; A Play of the Battlestar Pegasus, Act 3(Continues)
 
Act 3; Scene 4


Setting; The Bridge of the Phoenix


[Note to set dresser]


The set should have a series of banked screens and desks set in two parallel rows, one stage left, and one stage right set obliquely so that the audience(camera) appears to look from the back of the compartment looking forward. At stage rear is a large plexiglass plotting screen that a writer can stand behind and be seen writing backwards as data is relayed to him/her from the various technicians at their consoles.


Stage center is a table where the navigation and battle conferencing is conducted by the bridge battlestaff.


[Note to the director]


Block this scene, so that the actors do not obstruct the plexiglass plotting board. The Colonial technician who plots the battle should use the same marking conventions that were used in Act 1 Scene 5. Use Colonial extras to dress out the scene.at the work stations Those without lines should work silently pushing buttons and levers.


(Captain Neretu Osbor, commander of the Phoenix paces the bridge, looking constantly at the plexiglass plot. There is a Mercator polar projection map showing the Colonial viewpoint of the Cylon bases on the planet. The captain studies it, and is worried.)


Captain Neretu Osbor; What the frak happened?(He looks at Selene Spright)


Selene Spright(working with frustrated energy); I don't know, Sir. There was the one burst from Moffitt Two, then nothing. All I'm getting is radio from the Cylon command bunker and that is low-powered. I think they are using their own site generators to power their transmitter.


(The Colonial technician plots three big question marks where the aero-shell landing sites are marked as squares labelled Moffitt 1, Moffitt 2 , and Moffitt 3.


Marine/technician 2; More strike analysis, Sir. We wiped out their airbase completely. Nothing, Cylon, flies out of that place, anymore. The dam, that was their powerplant, is gone. So is the missile field that protected it. Moffitt 2 may have landed near there, off course.


Captain Neretu Osbor(eagerly); How do we know that? About Moffitt 2?


Selene Spright([surprised] works her own station even harder.); I'm sorry, Sir. This information just came through ship's opticals...(She gives Marine/technician 2 an angry look, since the technician should have sent the information to her station; as she reported the current updates to the Captain)......Moffitt 2 flared. The pilot may have overloaded the aero-shell decelerator. Still no confirmation of a safe landing. But its landed to the North of where it should be.


Captain Neretu Osbor; If Crabbe wrecked, Moffitt 2 by braking late, I'll skin him alive.(He continues pacing)


Selene Spright(eagerly); Sir, I have Moffitt 3! Its a compressed transmission. I'm unpacking it now.


Captain Neretu Osbor; Eight hours old, this far out.....How soon before you have it in plain text?


Selene Spright(confused); Its Colonial encrypted, and its on a Cylon carrier tight beam? Thirty minutes, Sir?


Captain Neretu Osbor; You have ten, Mistress Spright.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Act 3; Scene 5


Setting; Cain's quarters aboard the Pegasus


[Note to set dresser]


Dress the set as a sitting room(center), office(right), sleeping quarters(left). Provide a table(desk) with at least three chairs.


[Note to director]


Provide hand props to the actors, to substitute for the big plotter table that we see used on the bridge set. These can be anything from clipboards to notebook computers. If you have the resources give Cain's quarter's a small plexiglass plot screen that duplicates the Phoenix's bridge plexiglass screen plot, throughout the play.


Cain; Well. We know that Ensign Crabbe, and Lieutenant Hevo made it.


Tyro Glen; Still no word about Sheba?


Cain; Nothing.


Archet; If those two knuckleheads made it, then Captain Cain landed safely. I am confident in the aero-shells we built, and she was perfect in the simulations.


Tyro Glen; I should have used fewer slugs and more decoys.


Cain(Shakes head); Your load-outs for the Phoenix were perfect. You hit your targets and two of the aero-shells made it through. You saw the damage reports. Nobody, Cylon, or Human; had ever tried it, before.


Archet(under his breath);With good reason.


Cain; What was that, Doctor?


Archet(clears throat); Well, now that its done.....I simulated the possible strike outcomes, after Mister Glen presented his raid team insertion plan.


Cain; You mean the simulations, where the aero-shells had a less than fifteen percent chance of successfully landing?


Archet(coughing); I thought.


Cain; Where my daughter is concerned, Doctor, nothing escapes me.


Tyro Glen(laughing); You were saying about my Pilots/


Archet; I stand corrected. Obviously those men are not knuckleheads..


Tyro Glen(serious); Still, they are off of their target landing zones.(He picks up and looks at a handheld.) Moffitt 2 to the North, and Moffitt 1 to the west of their planned landing zones. Did Phoenix retransmit anything further; other than that they have a radio contact from Moffitt 2.


Cain; They made contact and joined up with Moffitt 3.


Tyro Glen; How, Sir, did you come by that news?


Cain; As I said before. When it comes to my daughter, nothing escapes me.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
break.................

Damocles February 23rd, 2006 02:54 PM

Requiem; A Play of the Battlestar Pegasus, Act 3(Continues)
 
Act 3; Scene 4


Setting; The Bridge of the Phoenix


[Note to set dresser]


The set should have a series of banked screens and desks set in two parallel rows, one stage left, and one stage right set obliquely so that the audience(camera) appears to look from the back of the compartment looking forward. At stage rear is a large plexiglass plotting screen that a writer can stand behind and be seen writing backwards as data is relayed to him/her from the various technicians at their consoles.


Stage center is a table where the navigation and battle conferencing is conducted by the bridge battlestaff.


[Note to the director]


Block this scene, so that the actors do not obstruct the plexiglass plotting board. The Colonial technician who plots the battle should use the same marking conventions that were used in Act 1 Scene 5. Use Colonial extras to dress out the scene.at the work stations Those without lines should work silently pushing buttons and levers.


(Captain Neretu Osbor, commander of the Phoenix paces the bridge, looking constantly at the plexiglass plot. There is a Mercator polar projection map showing the Colonial viewpoint of the Cylon bases on the planet. The captain studies it, and is worried.)


Captain Neretu Osbor; What the frak happened?(He looks at Selene Spright)


Selene Spright(working with frustrated energy); I don't know, Sir. There was the one burst from Moffitt Two, then nothing. All I'm getting is radio from the Cylon command bunker and that is low-powered. I think they are using their own site generators to power their transmitter.


(The Colonial technician plots three big question marks where the aero-shell landing sites are marked as squares labelled Moffitt 1, Moffitt 2 , and Moffitt 3.


Marine/technician 2; More strike analysis, Sir. We wiped out their airbase completely. Nothing, Cylon, flies out of that place, anymore. The dam, that was their powerplant, is gone. So is the missile field that protected it. Moffitt 2 may have landed near there, off course.


Captain Neretu Osbor(eagerly); How do we know that? About Moffitt 2?


Selene Spright([surprised] works her own station even harder.); I'm sorry, Sir. This information just came through ship's opticals...(She gives Marine/technician 2 an angry look, since the technician should have sent the information to her station; as she reported the current updates to the Captain)......Moffitt 2 flared. The pilot may have overloaded the aero-shell decelerator. Still no confirmation of a safe landing. But its landed to the North of where it should be.


Captain Neretu Osbor; If Crabbe wrecked, Moffitt 2 by braking late, I'll skin him alive.(He continues pacing)


Selene Spright(eagerly); Sir, I have Moffitt 3! Its a compressed transmission. I'm unpacking it now.


Captain Neretu Osbor; Eight hours old, this far out.....How soon before you have it in plain text?


Selene Spright(confused); Its Colonial encrypted, and its on a Cylon carrier tight beam? Thirty minutes, Sir?


Captain Neretu Osbor; You have ten, Mistress Spright.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Act 3; Scene 5


Setting; Cain's quarters aboard the Pegasus


[Note to set dresser]


Dress the set as a sitting room(center), office(right), sleeping quarters(left). Provide a table(desk) with at least three chairs.


[Note to director]


Provide hand props to the actors, to substitute for the big plotter table that we see used on the bridge set. These can be anything from clipboards to notebook computers. If you have the resources give Cain's quarter's a small plexiglass plot screen that duplicates the Phoenix's bridge plexiglass screen plot, throughout the play.


Cain; Well. We know that Ensign Crabbe, and Lieutenant Hevo made it.


Tyro Glen; Still no word about Sheba?


Cain; Nothing.


Archet; If those two knuckleheads made it, then Captain Cain landed safely. I am confident in the aero-shells we built, and she was perfect in the simulations.


Tyro Glen; I should have used fewer slugs and more decoys.


Cain(Shakes head); Your load-outs for the Phoenix were perfect. You hit your targets and two of the aero-shells made it through. You saw the damage reports. Nobody, Cylon, or Human; had ever tried it, before.


Archet(under his breath);With good reason.


Cain; What was that, Doctor?


Archet(clears throat); Well, now that its done.....I simulated the possible strike outcomes, after Mister Glen presented his raid team insertion plan.


Cain; You mean the simulations, where the aero-shells had a less than fifteen percent chance of successfully landing?


Archet(coughing); I thought.


Cain; Where my daughter is concerned, Doctor, nothing escapes me.


Tyro Glen(laughing); You were saying about my Pilots/


Archet; I stand corrected. Obviously those men are not knuckleheads..


Tyro Glen(serious); Still, they are off of their target landing zones.(He picks up and looks at a handheld.) Moffitt 2 to the North, and Moffitt 1 to the west of their planned landing zones. Did Phoenix retransmit anything further; other than that they have a radio contact from Moffitt 2.


Cain; They made contact and joined up with Moffitt 3.


Tyro Glen; How did you come by that new, Admiral?


Cain; As I said before. When it comes to my daughter, nothing escapes me.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
break.................


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